Hot from the presses in the Vatican. In reply to the proposed demotion of J. Saville from his papal knighthood.
 
"As there does not exist any permanent official list of persons who have received papal honours in the past, it is not possible to strike anyone off a list that does not exist.
"The names of recipients of papal honours do not appear in the Pontifical Year Book and the honour expires with the death of the individual.
 
Roughly translated:- ''We've decided to cop out from moral guidence and responsibility and we are shite at setting an example''.
 We are lectured non-stop that christianity is the bedrock of social morality. Pray, where is the commandment that we protect our children?
 If you pass a church tomorrow morning, spit on a christian for me.
Cheers.
 
 
 
 

 I've just come back for my garage after another exasperating attempt to do something about the play in my linkage bearings. Like most other people here I'm ok about having a few millimeters of play when I lift up the rear wheel, but mine had got decidedly worse than that, so I bought a set of new needle races and seals and replaced the lot (and swing arm bearings) That was last week and to my annoyance after I 'd torqued everything up the play was no different at all (i tried torqueing up with machine on centrestand and on sidestand too)
 Just now I fitted another linkage complete with bearings that I got off ebay for £30 (from a machine that was 'low mileage') and it's got slightly less play in it but still not really acceptable. I think my understanding mot chappie is not going to be so lenient on me when he checks the bearing play next time.
 I'm wondering now if anyone has any thoughts about having a batch of new sleeves made up as it seems the sleeves are the cause of this problem. I think someone even mentioned once that the standard sleeves are not tight enough in the races to start with so having 'proper' ones made might be a very good idea. If you look at the linkage when you move the wheel up and down you'll see that the long sleeve pivot at the bottom is the one that shows wear and I'm not surprised as it has to endure a heavy load whilst the other bearings just rotate. If costs for a new set of sleeves were a little high then perhaps having just the long sleeve made would be useful.
 As the Gen 1s get older many more of us are going to run into this problem with sleeves wearing out. If you've never checked the play in yours you might be a little surprised when you do. Keep an eye on it.
 

 It's been two years since I did my trip of a lifetime thru Vietnam on a 100cc chinese motorbike, I celebrated today by boring the arse off everyone in the pub all afternoon, wittering on about how great it was. But for good reason.
 If you've ever thought of doing spmething like this (yes, it's just like the Top Gear episode) don't hesitate, my whole trip only cost me £1500 for three weeks including the flight to Hanoi from UK and buying the bike (which I sold easily at the end of the trip, only losing $100).
 This Youtube link is not my film, but it shows the same route I took, more or less.
 

Amazing single track motorbike ride in North Vietnam

 
Next trip, Arfrica. On a Honda C90.

 Can anyone reccomend a decent footpump that works on motorcycle tyres without breaking after two weeks/leaking/letting air out when the clip is removed/falling over when you pump it etc. Me and my brother have been through 3 footpumps in as many months and have just binned a useless Halfords one. Does anyone use one of those stirrup type pumps?
 Only caveat is, I don't really want to spend more than £25

  Baldrick: "What I want to know Sir is, before there was a Euro there were lots of different types of money that different people used. And now there's only one type of money that the foreign people use. And what I want to know is, how did we get from one state of affairs to the other state of affairs"

Blackadder: "Baldrick. Do you mean, how did the Euro start?"

Baldrick: "Yes Sir"
...
Blackadder: "Well, you see Baldrick, back in the 1980s there were many different countries all running their own finances and using different types of money. On one side you had the major economies of France, Belgium,Holland and Germany, and on the other, the weaker nations of Sp ain, Greece, Ireland, Italy and Portugal. They got together and decided that it would be much easier for everyone if they could all use the same money, have one Central Bank, and belong to one large club where everyone would be happy. This meant that there could never be a situation whereby financial meltdown would lead to social unrest, wars and crises".

Baldrick: "But this is sort of a crisis, isn't it Sir?".

Blackadder: "That's right Baldrick. You see, there was only one slight flaw with the plan".

Baldrick: "What was that then, Sir?" 
 
 

Blackadder: "It was bollocks".

From Superbikeplanet.com Honda's Casey Stoner's Statement On Retirement [size=-2]Thursday, May 17, 2012[/size][size=-1]This statement is attributed to Honda's Casey Stoner regarding his shock announcement to retire from racing, announced today in France: "After a long time thinking, a lot of time talking with my family and my wife, this has been coming for a couple of years now but at the end of this 2012 season I will be not racing in the 2013 Championship. I will be finishing my career at the end of this season in MotoGP, and go forward in different things in my life." "After so many years of doing this sport which I love, and which myself and my family made so many sacrifices for, after so many years of trying to get to where we have gotten to at this point, this sport has changed a lot and it has changed to the point where I am not enjoying it. I don't have the passion for it and so at this time it's better if I retire now. "There are a lot of things that have disappointed me, and also a lot of things I have loved about this sport, but unfortunately the balance has gone in the wrong direction. And so, basically, we won't be continuing any more. It would be nice if I could say I would stay one more year, but then where does it stop? So we decided to finish everything as we are now."[/size]

Returned to the motorcycle bay last night after work and found that some joker had put a cable lock through my front wheel. Why someone should do this is a mystery and thinking about it, just a little bit sinister. Fortunately, despite it being a quarter inch thick cable I managed to borrow a hacksaw from a nearby building site and cut it off in about 5 minutes. No damage to the bike and no sign of other tampering.
 
Is this a new form of vandalism or anti-motorcycle antic? Has anyone else heard of this happening?
Ferkin mad or what?

 Has anyone got any fork caps going spare? Perhaps someone out there has irrepairably bent their sliders in the past and has a pair laying around they could sell.
 Reason is, I've put on some different handlebars which work just right with the GYT handlebar clamps but annoyingly the bars clout the top of the preload adjusters unless I screw the adjusters right in but this messes up the preload setting I use.
 I need to get a pair of fork caps and machine the spring-landing down a bit to ease off the preload and give me back some adjustment.
 
 Addendum (edit): -I've just had another look at a diagram of the fork internals and there is another way perhaps, does anyone know if shortening the spacer is easier?